Best Dramatic Fight Against Censorship

Rent

Staff Pick

After Summerville Town Councilman Terry Jenkins complained about Flowertown Player’s production of Rent — citing what he believed to be a vulgar script — he threatened to pull accommodation tax funding for the troupe. The Players fought back. The debate fueled a larger censorship discussion that was happening across the state thanks to CofC pulling the lesbian graphic novel Fun Home from its freshman reading course. What did we learn? There are a lot of folks in this state who treat the freedom of speech as a recommendation rather than law. Luckily, people got behind Flowertown and supported the troupe, ultimately proving that cooler heads can prevail. As Flowertown’s executive director JC Conway said, “There’s this idea in smaller communities that a play and what is written down is just a suggestion. But changing the phrasing — that’s illegal and a violation of federal copyright laws. And it’s unethical because that author wrote those words for very specific reasons.”